Arnold Schwarzenegger – How many people did Governor Greenwash screw?

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The Gropenator’s sorry record

Schwarzenegger’s real environmental legacy is much different from how Schwarzenegger and his collaborators portray it. What was his actual environmental record?

Schwarzenegger allowed the Department of Water Resources to pump record levels of water out of the Delta from 2003 to 2007, resulting in the Central Valley salmon and California Delta pelagic species collapses.The largest annual water export levels in history occurred in 2003 (6.3 million acre feet), 2004 (6.1 MAF), 2005 (6.5 MAF) and 2006 (6.3 MAF). Exports averaged 4.6 MAF annually between 1990 and 1999 and increasing to an average of 6 MAF between 2000 and 2007, a rise of almost 30 percent, according to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
He constantly attacked two federal biological opinions, released in 2009, protecting Delta smelt, Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales.
His administration did nothing while tens of thousands of striped bass, Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento splittail and other species perished during a levee repair project at Prospect Island in the California Delta in November 2007.
He vetoed numerous environmental bills, including vetoing a badly needed bill sponsored by Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) in 2008 that would provide for emergency fish rescue plans on the Delta.
He consistently slashed funding for game wardens in the field while California has the lowest ratio of wardens to residents of any state in the nation.
He constantly directed the Central Valley Regional Water Control Board to continue to grant waivers to agricultural polluters, in spite of the dire condition of Delta fisheries.
Since 2004, he fast-tracked a controversial, privately-funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative filled with conflicts of interest, institutional racism and corruption. Rather than creating marine protected areas that truly protect the ocean, this initiative kicks sustainable fishermen and gatherers off the water while refusing to deal with pollution, coastal development, military testing, wave energy projects and other human uses of the ocean that imperil marine life and ecosystems.
As Schwarzenegger fast-tracked the privately-funded MLPA fiasco, he twice vetoed two crab pot limit bills needed to preserve California crab fisheries.
Schwarzenegger introduced a bill that would allow the lame-duck Governor to choose 25 development projects each year that would be exempt from the state’s strict standards under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) .
The Governor’s Office of Pesticide Regulation on December 1, 2010 inexplicably approved methyl iodide to replace the soil fumigant methyl bromide, even though methyl iodide is even more toxic to animals, fish and people than methyl bromide.

However, the “crown jewel” of Schwarzenegger’s water policies was his campaign to build a peripheral canal/canal and new dams via his Delta Vision and Bay Delta Conservation Plan processes. This construction of a canal/tunnel, estimated to cost anywhere from $23 to $53.8 billion, is likely to lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other species.

In his zeal to build the canal, Schwarzenegger attempted to sabotage the campaign by the Klamath, Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa Valley Tribes, fishermen and environmentalists to remove four Klamath River dams by including $250 million for dam removal in an unpopular water bond that creates the infrastructure for a peripheral canal and new dams. Because it would have faced certain defeat at the polls last November, Schwarzenegger and the Legislative leadership postponed the water bond until November 2012.

In addition, the Schwarzenegger administration granted agribusiness permits to divert water from the Scott and Shasta rivers, resulting in the de-watering of these Klamath River tributaries at tremendous risk to endangered coho salmon. Schwarzenegger’s “scorched earth” policy towards the Scott and Shasta forced Earthjustice to file a lawsuit against the Department of Fish and Game on behalf of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Klamath Riverkeeper, the Sierra Club, the Quartz Valley Indian Tribe, Northcoast Environmental Center and Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC).

While his record regarding fishery and water issues is the worst of any Governor in California history, Schwarzenegger’s portrayal by the corporate media and corporate environmental NGOs as a relentless advocate for “clean energy” is also very deceptive. Former Senator Sheila Kuel eloquently exposed the myth of the “Jolly Green Giant” in her article, “A Lame Duck Governor Fabricates A Hoped-For Legacy,” in the California Progress Report on July 29 (http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/?q=node/8010).

Where was the corporate media that is now so eager to talk about Schwarzenegger’s “love child” scandal when Schwarzenegger’s was waging his “scorched earth campaign” against fish and the environment?

The good news is that Schwarzenegger is gone from the Governor’s office. The bad news is the terrible legacy that he left – the collapse of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River spring and winter run chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and other fish populations, his many horrible appointments to state boards and commissions, and his consistent failure to enforce the state’s clean water, fish restoration and other environmental laws.

While some are suggesting that Schwarzenegger, the former “Governator,” has become the “Sperminator,” he will always be the “Fish Terminator” and “Greenwashinator” to me!

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